Success overshadowed by curriculum row

13 January 2005 00:35

Ministers have welcomed GCSE figures showing a rise in the overall pass rate and the fastest improvements in schools in the poorest parts of England.

But the good news was overshadowed by a row about the secondary school league tables, as critics said the inclusion of subjects such as bakery and hairdressing was "defeating the point".

The percentage of students gaining five or more A*-C grades at GCSE went up by 0.8pc to 53.7pc in 2004, while A-level passes also increased.

And in schools facing the most "challenging circumstances", the number of pupils gaining five or more A*-Cs rose from 29.4pc to 32.1pc.

However, the row over whether new vocational qualifications should be included stole much of the attention.

School standards minister Stephen Twigg insisted it was important to give recognition to vocational courses.

But education experts and teachers' leaders attacked the decision. Independent schools said it amounted to "comparing apples with candy floss".

Alan Smithers, one of the country's most influential education experts, warned of the impact of including a much wider range of qualifications as "equivalent" to GCSE for the first time this year.

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) said there were now too many qualifications included to list them all individually.

The old system of making an A* at GCSE worth eight points and a G-grade one point had been abandoned in favour of a much more complicated system.

Government officials said they could not provide a complete new tally explaining how many points each work-related qualification scored.

Prof Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, said the picture was becoming so complicated that it threatened to defeat the purpose.

"Presenting these results was meant to give simple, direct information to parents. If in the interests of being comprehensive that is no longer being provided then the main usefulness of the exercise is being undermined."

Under the new system, a distinction in a certificate in cake decorating is worth 55 points – more than a GCSE grade A in physics.

And a City and Guilds progression award in bakery was worth more than five GCSEs at grade C.

Mr Twigg insisted that including more work-related courses in the figures gave credit where it was due.

The Independent Schools Council said the league tables "no longer have any value whatever in reporting on meaningful achievement in key academic subjects or serious vocational studies.

"The new points score employed for 2004 results accords equivalent values to qualifications in cake decoration, pattern cutting and wired sugar flowers as to GCSEs in maths, English, science and modern languages. This is absurd."

But John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads' Association, said the added complexity gave parents a better picture.

"In the past the tables have been too simplistic.

"The new tables give parents a broader view of the achievements of schools," he said.

Email A Friend